Today's poem is by Maryann Corbett

Sacred Art & Architectural Salvage, Inc.
        In the aftermath of the abuse investigations

Blessed is this warehouse: plaster-crumbed
        limbo of the souls of the gutted churches.

Blessed this gaggle of fonts, their marble bowls
        waterless as the deserts in Isaiah.

Blessed these tabernacles, gaping, empty,
        next to the painted rows of dry-eyed statues.

Blessed the drapery of stiff blue veils
        and pale curls of the manifold Madonna,
        whole rosaries of her, rote as grade-school prayer.

Blessed the satin robes in every color,
        trimmed in white lacework (frayed at hem or wrist)
        on ranks and files of the Infant-Jesus-of-Prague,

Round-cheeked and rosebud-lipped, as though no evil
        could ever soil a childish innocence.

Blessed this emptying, its dust and crumble
        the sackcloth of our humbling.

Blessed is salvage, waiting for salvation.

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Copyright © 2023 Maryann Corbett All rights reserved
from The O in the Air
Franciscan University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission